Control of atomic reconstruction and quasi-1D excitons in strain-engineered moir\'e heterostructures

Abstract

In two-dimensional nearly commensurate heterostructures, strain plays a critical role in shaping electronic behavior. While previous studies have focused on random strain introduced during fabrication, achieving controlled structural design has remained challenging. Here, we demonstrate the deterministic creation of one-dimensional arrays from initially zero-dimensional triangular moir\'e patterns in MoSe$_2$-WSe$_2$ heterobilayers. This transformation, driven by the interplay of uniaxial strain and atomic reconstruction, results in one-dimensional confinement of interlayer excitons within domain walls, exhibiting near-unity linearly polarized emission related to the confinement-induced symmetry breaking. The width of the domain walls--and consequently the degree of exciton confinement--can be precisely tuned by the interlayer twist angle. By applying out-of-plane electric field, the confined excitons exhibit energy shifts exceeding 100~meV and changes in the fine-structure splitting by up to a factor of two. Our work demonstrates the potential of strain engineering for constructing designer moir\'e systems with programmable quantum properties, paving the way for future optoelectronic applications.